Summit City Comic Con Spotlight – Nik Havert

August 19, 2011 | By More


I couldn’t pass up a sales pitch like, “Buy a comic, I’ll write you a haiku” could I? And thus I was lured into a Nik Havert’s world.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t quite like that, but close. Nik Havert is the “Big Cheese” at Pickle Press. And actually his table had some interesting art on it that caught my attention. Interesting art? How can I say this delicately? Nik has appreciation of the female form. Most of his stories involve female protagonists to further accentuate that fact.

The books ranged from Sci-Fi to Horror. A number of the books had variant photo covers, which is probably what caught my attention. In a room full of comic art, photos were a bit of stand out. Some of the comics at his table also had some cover sheets in front of them warning, “Adults Only”.

I went over and perused and in arm twisting move Nik offered to write a haiku on the spot with a purchase. Alright, I gave in. I purchased a copy of “Salem, AZ” and received an expertly worded haiku about dogs.

I picked a non-photo cover comic, mainly because I was more interested in the story of this one. “Salem, AZ” is the story of a witch in the Old West. Which is something I hadn’t read before.

I have to say this book pulled me in, there’s a couple of pages of prequel involving a mine. The story then picks up with the heroin Kerry Connelly, a witch  from a family of  magic wielding parents. The story follows her adventures as she meets up with some gunslingers involved in a plot masterminded by a villain intent on capturing a power trapped in the prequel mine.

The back cover, and I’m assuming photo cover are photos of model Nicole McClain in character as Kerry. It’s a clever thing to have a pretty girl on the cover of your book dressed as your main character.

The book is all black and white. But the odd feature is that the pages are lain out in a horizontal  manner, meaning you flip bottom to top when you are reading instead of right to left.

The art is solid and I have to say the look of the characters is consistent through out. I really love the wording and font used when Kerry is casting spells. Top it off there are some pinup pages of the Western witch in the back of the book.

I have only two small nits. There are a couple of panels where the art is pixelated. Not badly, just enough so you can tell. The second? There’s no second issue yet. The story trails off at the end and leaves me wanting more. Hopefully, next year Nik will have a second one ready for Summit City Comic Con.

 

Check out Pickle Press: http://www.picklepress.net/

 

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Category: Book & Graphic Novels, Featured, Media Reviews

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Comments (4)

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  1. Errex says:

    Sounds really interesting. It is unexpected to see that the dialog in the image you posted is partially in spanish.

  2. Engineernerd says:

    I hadn’t picked up on that. Thanks!

  3. Nik Havert says:

    Yes, Kerry’s fighting a Mexican bandit in that scene and all of his dialogue is in “Mexican Spanish” that was translated for me by an artist pal of mine from Queretaro, Mexico.

    Kerry’s “spell dialogue” is all in Gaelic, since she and her family are Irish.

    Issue 2 is underway. I think 10 pages of pencils are done by now. If all goes well, I’ll have it ready to premiere in March 2012.

    Thanks for the kind review.

    And yes, I do appreciate the female form. It’s a rough gig, writing comics for beautiful women.

  4. Engineernerd says:

    Thanks, Nik! It’s great to hear issue 2 is on the way!